Newsletter-198-August-1987

Griffiths. Itinerary
and application form enclosed. If, you would like to join this outing, please
return form to Dorothy Newbury, with cheque, as soon as possible. We have not
been able to fill the usual 53-seater coaches this year and if we know early
enough, we can order a smaller coach.

FRIDAY, SATURDAY,
SUNDAY, 11, 12, 13. SEPTEMBER:

Abergavenny
weekend with John Enderby. Still 2 places left, if any latecomers want to go.
For members who have booked, a request for the balance of the payment is
enclosed.

Dorothy posted these
at lunchtime on Tuesday, 30th June, but many members had not received them
by 8 or 9 July. She learned that they were not franked until 2 July and she is
taking it up with the Post Office.

VISIT TO
WINCHESTER, DANEBURY AND ANDOVER E John Hoosen.

The principal
objective of the HADAS trip of 11 July was Danebury hillfort, excavated by
Professor Barry Cunliffe over sixteen seasons from 1969.

Before reaching
Danebury, however, we made a stop in Winchester where we were conducted around
the current excavations at the Brooks, close by the Cathedral Green. Miranda,
an enthusiastic member of the excavation team, explained the current situation
of the dig which was showing a range of phases from the Roman to the late
Medieval, all contained in a depth of about one metre.

The Medieval, for
which much documentary evidence from the 12th century onwards exists, included
a large house and workshops of one John Newman, a fuller. The remains of a
slate-based shrinking tank could be seen and samples from an area of possible
fuller's earth have been sent recently for analysis:

The size of this
building was dwarfed by the one next to it where excavation was only just
beginning. It had belonged to Jon D'Tyting, a wool merchant who had been the
wealthiest man in Winchester.

Over the site,
Roman, Saxon and Medieval pits and brick and stone-lined wells as well as many
other features were being excavated. The last occupation of the site appears to
have been given over to Victorian pleasures as evidenced by 18 pubs in the 19th
century. Excavation is scheduled to continue until July 1988 and can be viewed
seven days a week.

Our next stop was Danebury
Hillfort where our guide was Max Dacre of the Andover Archaeological Society
who had an intimate knowledge of the site, having dug there for many seasons.
His lucid explanation commenced with the geology of the area and how it was
favourable for the production of wheat and barley which could have been the
reason for the construction of the hillfort. Next, he covered in detail the
development of the defences of the hillfort from its initial univallate stage
at around 600 BC, through various phases until it reached its peak in the 4th
and 3rd centuries BC, by which time outer ramparts had been constructed, the
south-west gate blocked and the east entrance strengthened with horn works and
heavy gates requiring massive oak posts with a diameter of about one metre.
Many hoards of sling stones, which can be lethally accurate at a range of 50
metres or more, had been found.

Excavation of the
interior had revealed evidence of round houses, constructed in the rampart
quarry ditch, rectangular huts, metalled roads, corn storage pits and
granaries. It has been postulated that Danebury could have been a defended
market-town. Part of the interior was left unexcavated in order that it would
be available for future archaeologists and the excavated areas have been
back-filled and can be identified by the regeneration of nettles;

Our picnic lunch
was taken at the highest interior point where evidence of buildings but no
artefacts were found during the excavation— Prof Cunliffe has suggested that
this could be a temple site comparable with that excavated at Heathrow, of a
non-material religion.

The end of
Danebury Hillfort has not yet been established but it probably coincided with
the coming of the Romans. It is known that it was used for rural fairs until
the 17th. Century (a continuation of the prehistoric market town use?) and as
rabbit warrens.

On leaving
Danebury, Max Dacre insisted that we should next visit Bury Hill Hillfort as it
was comparable with Danebury in many ways. A very short climb brought us to the
interior, now under crops and never excavated. The similarity with Danebury at
first eluded us but a short walk along the ramparts revealed a steep rampart
and ditch similar to those at Danebury and probably constructed at the same
time,.

Our final visit
was to the Museum of the Iron Age in Andover. This was only opened in September
last year and benefits from the Modern concepts of display with exhibits
extremely well set out under good lighting conditions and with concise
descriptions. It is principally concerned with Danebury and contains many of
the finds and an impressive full-sized reconstruction of a section of the
ramparts. It was not difficult to spend the two hours allocated to the visit
viewing this impressive presentation.

The visits had
been masterminded by Dorothy Newbury aided and abetted by her daughter Marion,
with the excellence now associated with them. Consequently, it was
disappointing that only 32 members participated, leaving 20 seats on the coach
unfilled. This could, however, in part be attributable to certain very late
postal deliveries of the final itinerary for the day.

NEWS FROM THE
BOROUGH ARCHIVISTS

The outstanding
donation during the last quarter was several boxloads of abstracts of title
from a Golders Green solicitor. These proved to cover most of the areas of
1930s development within the Borough and have already proved useful to Jeremy
Frankel in his researches on Edgware.

There are two
interesting and beautiful new local sheets in the Alan Godfrey reprints of the
25" 0S maps. They are for Hampstead, in both the 1866 and 1894 editions,
and as they include West Heath, should be of particular interest to HADAS
members. Copies are available through the libraries of both Barnet and Camden.

Dr Peter Bigmore
of the Middlesex Poly School of Geography and Dr Taylor are co-operating on a
long-term research project into the continuity of field systems and larger
administrative units in Dark Age Middlesex. They would be delighted to hear
from any member who has relevant knowledge or interest.

THE PADDOCK; THE
BURROUGHS,NW4

Everyone who
knows; Hendon Town Hall and The Burroughs will also know the pleasant patch of
green at the corner of the Burroughs and Church End. When Miss Henge sold
Church End Farm, she expressed a wish that the Paddock, which was part of it,
should be left open and undeveloped for 900 years. At present, it is surrounded
by the remains of iron railings, repaired with open chestnut palings. Not
surprisingly, the Polytechnic, the occupiers of this area, wish to put up a
replacement boundary fence. Their first application for permission was for a
Close-boarded softwood paling fence, 1.5 metres high. HADAS were not the only
ones to object to this, which would have cut the Paddock from view for the
passerby and it was withdrawn. Then the Poly applied for a 'palisade' softwood
fence, of the same height. It was not clear how big the gaps would be between
the palings of the palisade and we reiterated our objections. (We also said we
thought the area should be open space with access to the public.)

The Council
Planning Sub-Committee have now refused permission for a palisade fence, adding
an indication that application for an open metal fence would be more favourably
received. At the same meeting (15 July), the Planning Sub-Committee had before
them an application for the proposed development of land behind the Burroughs (i.e.
in the angle formed by The Burroughs and Watford Way) which includes a quantity
of new housing, with a new access road, feeding into The Burroughs.
Consideration of this was deferred to a future meeting, to give the Committee
an opportunity to view and consider the area.

. .

AN ICE HOUSE IN
HENDON? Ted Sammes

Many members will
have been alerted to the plans put forward, in November 1986, by Barnet Council
to develop houses in front of the land 'locked up' in the triangle of The
Burroughs, Greyhound Hill and Watford Way. Your Committee has been taking a
long look at these proposals and their archaeological implications. Part of the
grounds of St Joseph’s will be taken if the development goes ahead.

In Newsletter 88 for
June 1978, a full discussion of a mound within the grounds is given, with the
suggestion that it probably hides an ice house. Examination of the area on
Sunday, 12 July, by a party consisting of Alison Balfour-Lynn, Victor Jones,
Paddy Musgrove, Ted Sammes and Brian Wrigley did nothing to dispel this idea.
The mound is longer than it is wide and is therefore possibly a long,
horizontal ice house rather than one of the vertical ice houses which were
common in the 17th to 18th centuries. It was decided to try to survey and
perhaps excavate the mound if permission can be obtained.

SATURDAY 26:
September

MINIMART at St
Mary's Church House,Hendon

Please ring
Dorothy Newbury (203-0950) or Christine Arnot (455-2751)

if you have any
goods available - good clothing, toiletries, unwanted gifts,

bric-a-brac,toys
etc.

THE PREHISTORIC
SOCIETY SUMMER CONFERENCE by Enid
Hill

Bala, a small town
close to Lake Bala in North Wales, proved an attractive centre for the
Prehistoric Society's Study Tour of North Wales. The week there was spent
visiting a great variety of sites - Iron Age; hillforts; Bronze Age ring
cairns, a Neolithic axe factory, a Palaeolithic cave site, prehistoric tombs of
various kinds megalithic, passage and chambered – plus a so-called Druids stone
circle. Every minute of the day was happily occupied and we were lucky with the
weather - dull at first but hot and sunny later.

So we all
struggled.to the top of the various Hillforts,
anything from 1000 to 1500 feet and to add to the ordeal, we sometimes
did two a day with the agony of descending, only to go up again later. The
views from the top were magnificent, looking over the hills of North Wales often
to the sea. I enjoyed two sites especially - Tre'r Ceiri, South Canarvon is
probably the best preserved of all the hillforts of southern Britain Inhabited
over several centuries, starting with about 20 round houses with surrounding
stone wall, still retaining the original parapet and rampart walk in some places.
Later, 150 roughly rectangular houses replaced the large round houses and
alterations were made to the walls. The other fort was Bryn y Castell near
Ffestiniog where Peter Crew, whom many HADAS members will remember from the
HADAS weekend in North Wales, showed us his complete excavation-(1979-1965) of
a very small stone-walled fort; providing evidence of an industrial settlement
specialising in the production of iron from local bog iron ore. A wide range of
metallurgical debris was found, representing cycles of iron-working, including
smelting, bloom smithing and artefact smithing.

Much to our
relief, we had a lowland day in Anglesey and spent the time visiting several
tombs. Two megalithic tombs were beautifully situated on the estate of Plas
Newydd overlooking the Menai Strait. Another, Bryn Celli, was a polygonal
chambered tomb with a long, straight passage leading to it from the edge of the
cairn. In the centre was a ritual pit and a decorated stone. Finally; we saw
Barclodied y Gawres perched on a headland on the west coast - a passage grave
with a cruciform chamber and an important series of decorated stones. Some
ritual performance had once taken place as a fire had been lit and then a
quantity of stew had been poured over it and the fire quenched by covering it
with pebbles and limpet shells. The stew mixture seems unpleasant - ell,
whiting, frog, grass snake, mouse, shrew and hare but presumably it was used
for ritual only as the central area was not used for burial - only the side
chamber.

One other day was
memorable as we climbed up the east, end of Penmaenmawr mountain outside Conway
to a moorland area where are found the outcrops which provided Group VII axes,
and walking across the moor, we found cairns of various kinds, and the
so-called Druids circle. This was impressive- thirty granite monoliths are set
within a bank except at the south-west where there is a gap. In the centre was
found the capstone of a cist which contained a food vessel with the cremation
of a 10-12 year old child.

The week was a
good one; it was well organised and we had excellent lecturers and specialist speakers.

COURSES AND
CONFERENCES

THE. BRITISH.
ASSOCIATION FOR LOCAL HISTORY is holding a Day Conference on Saturday 19
September. Applications (including a 110mm x 220mm stamped; self-envelope)
should be sent to: The Programme Secretary, The British Association, for Local
History, Shopwyke Hall, Chichester, West Sussex P020 6BQ - Costs: Members of
BALH without lunch £8.00 with lunch £10.00

Non-members £10.50 £12.50

ASPECTS OF ANGLO
SAXON ENGLAND: A day course at the Tower of London on September 26th .Cost:
£7.50 (to include admission to the Tower, SAE to the Early Studies Group, 8 Westfield
Road.

THE UNIVERSITY OF
LONDON:

Certificate in
Field Archeology. A new syllabus and course structure has been approved: The
Certificate will be awarded after years 1 & 3 have been successfully
completed, with a further (fourth) year of study required to obtain the new
DIPLOMA IN FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY. For further details, contact: A J Legge, Senior
Lecturer in Archaeology, Department of Extra-Mural Studies, University of
London, 26 Russell Square, London WC1 5DQ

BROCKLEY HILL

All set for August
Bank Holiday and September.

As reported in the
last newsletter, we plan to start opening trial trenches at Brockley Hill,
along the line of the proposed Water Pipe Line, on August Bank Holiday weekend,
29-31 August, and to continue through September on Wednesdays, Fridays,
Saturdays and Sundays from 9.30am to 6.00pm.

We shall also be
carrying out resistivity surveys along the route of the Pipe line. We shall be
digging in the field on the east side of Brockley Hill (Watling Street) just
north of the small turning called Pipers Green Lane where cars can be parked.

If you are
interested, please contact Gillian Braithwaite (445-9275) or Brian Wrigley
(959-5982). Digging experience is useful but not essential; gardening skills do
very well. A sketch map of the area and full details of how to reach the site
will be available from Gillian or Brian. Lifts can be arranged. Please note
this is the last newsletter notice before digging starts.

MEMBERS NEWS

We are glad to
hear, via Nell who has been to see BRIDID GRAFTON GREEN in hospital, that
Brigid is on the way to recovery and we wish her an easy and speedy
convalescence.

VINCENT FOSTER,
who was a valued committee member for some years, left for Canada over two
years ago but has remained a member during that time. We thought it was a
spirit of adventure that sent him out there. We now learn that it was True
Love. He up and went and was married to a Canadian girl in September 1984.
Belated congratulations, Vincent Many members will remember him at our first
phase West Heath dig, and again, dressed as a First World War soldier, serving
drinks at our 21st birthday party.

WESTTHORPE - A
RUSSIAN CONNECTION Ted Sammes

Following the
appeal in the May newsletter and Mary Gravatt's note on the Elworthys, Alec Jeakins
has made a contribution by forwarding the information to the University of
Leeds. Richard Davies runs the Leeds Russian Archive which seems to be looking
into past Russia in considerable depth.

I now have two
progress reports on their collection. He informs me that there is still a
descendant of the Council's secretary, Helen M Elworthy, active today as
Chairman of the British Creditors in Russia. The Leeds Russian Archive would
also like any information that my friend, F H Harris, can give them.

VIKING MASS GRAVE
A WINDFALL FOR ARCHAELOGY (The Guardian) Muriel Lam

The only known
mass burial of its kind in the Viking world has presented archaeologist with
evidence of human sacrifice, women camp followers and the last resting place of
a great warrior prince. The Repton (Derbyshire) dig into the winter quarters of
Great Army of the Danes, which pillaged England in the 9th century has been in
progress since 1974 and is now producing spectacular discoveries.

The burial mound
contained the remains of more than 250 bodies originally stacked around a
single central body surrounded with jewellery and weapons. It was as if their
bones had been laid out in tribute to a great man in the centre, who has not so
far been identified. In what looked like a further tribute to the unknown
leader, four young people seemed to have been sacrificed in a simultaneous
burial. Bones from the mass burial show no signs of the terrible wounds of men
killed in battle. English weather and diseases seem to have done for the
Vikings. About 20% of the bodies were females and there were few children or
old people. Dr Martin Biddle of Oxford University, one of three leaders of the
dig, said that measurements suggested that the men had skulls similar to those
of Danes today and the women had skulls of a present day English type. This
suggested to him that the women were Saxon camp followers.

THE GREEKS IN
SOUTHERN ITALY at the BRITISH MUSEUM Isobel
McPherson

Liz Sagues'
articles in the 'Ham and High' are great disturbers of the imagination and
spurs to action. Her article (10 July) describes the new permanent exhibition.
The scope is ambitious its aim is "to outline the story of Greek life and
influence in Southern Italy, from the first large-scale visits around 1500 to
1100BC, through the rise of the colonies from about 700 BC, to Rome's gradual
assumption of control in the 3rd century BC."

Yet this is
achieved largely by, the display, with maps and commentaries, of treasures long
owned by the British Museum, over half of them from dusty storerooms. Liz
stresses the importance of vase paintings for our under­standing of the times -
"scenes of feasting, dancing, fighting, wooing spinning, washing,
riding" - and especially the work of the Rehearshal Painter whose vases
are a visual Dictionary of Greek Theatre.

"Next in line
for such treatment," Liz says, "are the ancient Cypriots and the
Etruscans." We can hardly wait: